Attachment for buttonhole-sewing machines.



PATEN'I'ED APR. 5, 1904.

L. BGKER.

ATTACHMENT FOR BUTTONHOLE'SEWING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 4. 1902. RENEWED MAR. 2, 1904.

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No. 756,483 PATBN'TED APR. 5, 1904. L.BGKER. ATTACHMENT FOR BUTTONHOLESEWING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 4. 1902. RENEWED MAR. 2, 1904. N0 MODEL.

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L. EGKER.

ATTACHMENT FOR BUTTONHOLE SEWING MACHINES. 7

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No. 756,483. PATBNTED APR. 5, 1904. L. EGKER.

ATTACHMENT FOR BUTTONHOLE SEWING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 4, 1902. RENEWED MAR. 2, 1904. N0 MODEL. 4SHEETS-41313121 4.

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UNTTED STATES Patented April 5, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

LOUIS ECKER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO H. ECKER 8:: SONS, OFCHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A FIRM.

ATTACHMENT FOR BUTTONHOLE-SEWING MACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 756,483, dated. April5, 1904;.

Application filed August 4, 1902; Renewed March 2, 1904:. Serial No.196,240. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, LOUIS ECKER, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in At tachments forButtonhole-Sewing Machines,

of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improved construction of the device known asthe bedplate button and also of the attachment known as the bed-plate,in which the button is centrally fastened, the purpose of the buttonbeing to direct the cord threaded through it, which cord is employed asan edgereinforcing medium for the buttonhole, and the purposes of theslotted plate besides its use in supporting the button being to guidethe work and to present a guide through which to cut the buttonholebetween the marginal stitches formed about the line to be cut.

The attachments in the class referred to upon which the constructions ofmy invention are more immediately designed as improvements are thoseemployed in the machine known as the Singer type of buttonhole-machine.As that machine is well known in the art and since my improved devicesare adapted to be substituted upon that machine for the correspondingattachments commonly used therewith to cooperate with the othermechanism of the machine, I deem it unnecessary for the purposes of myapplication to illustrate in the drawings thereof such other mechanism.

The primary object of my improvements is to cause the machinersewedbuttonhole produced by them to closely resemble a handsewed buttonhole,first, by raising the ciroum- I ferential line of stitches, and thuscausing it to stand out firmly in relief by causing the cord to lielengthwise directly under the central line of loops formed by thestitches, and,

second, by forming the stitches bias or caus- .plan View of the same,having indicated upon it an old construction of the plate by a dottedrepresentation of a guide-slot therein. Fig. 3 is a brokenrepresentation, exaggerated as to the stitches, of a common machine-madebuttonhole, illustrating defects therein which prevent its desired closeresemblance to a buttonhole produced by hand-sewing. Fig. 4 is a similarview of a machine-made buttonhole produced by my improvements. Fig. 5 isan enlarged broken section taken through the plate and button at theline 5 on Fig. 2 viewed in the direction of the arrow and showingdiagrammatically the threaded needle about to make the initial stroke ofits oscillating stitch through the work at the outer side of the cord.Fig. 6 is a similar view showing the needle about to make its stroke atthe opposite or inner side of the cord. Fig. 7 is a section like thatpresented in Figs. 5 and 6, but taken ata right angle thereto throughthe buttonplate and button at the line 7 on Fig. 2 and viewed in thedirection of the arrow. Fig. 8 is a broken plan view of the plate,showing, greatly enlarged, the button fastened in it and the cordpassing through the button and with a dotted diagram of the line ofextension of the cord after its initial fastening to the work when thebutton is employed with the illustrated slotted construction of thebutton-plate. Fig. 9 is a bottom plan view of the button;

, Fig. 10, a broken plan View of the plate with the feeding-clamp uponit and the work in place; Fig. 11, a section taken at the line 11 onFig. 10 and viewed in the direction of the arrow; Fig. 12, a top planview of the camdisk for actuating the clamp, and Fig. 13 a bottom planview of the same.

A is the disk-shaped bed-plate, adapted to be fastened in place, asusual, on a buttonholesewing machine. In the central stepped opening aof the plate is fastened, as by screws 6, the button B. The buttoncomprises an annular base 0 shaped to fit the plate-opening a, a hollowneck 0', and a head 0, provided with a circumferential flange 0 In thetop of the button-head is formed an elongated opening d, extending fromnear one edge of the head diametrically across it to or somewhat beyondits center for the usual oscillating play of the machine-needle D.Beyond the centerof the needle-opening 01, near its inner end or thatfarthest from an adjacent edge of the button-head, is formed through thehead at a right angle to the needle-opening a cord-feed orifice 6,having a cord-guiding groove 0 extending from its upper end into oneside of the opening [Z and forming at one side of its junction therewitha nose 6 The groove e should be of a width to afford a snug fit to acord f Within it, and an extension 6 of the groove 6 is formed in thetop of the button-head at the opposite side of the needleopening cl of awidth causing it to aline with the inner extremity of said opening.

It is customary to provide in the plate A a diametrically-extendingslotg at one side of the button in alinement with the cord-orifice e in thebutton-head and provided with anarrower cutter-guide extension 00 and aslot (indicated at h by dotted lines in Fig. 2) at the opposite side ofthe button in line with the slot g, these slots being joined from theextension w to the inner end of the slot h by an arc-shaped slot g Theslots referred to afford guides for the movable clamp, Figs. 10 and 11,which embraces the button-neck c and is confined under the button-flangec to hold the work (represented at E in Figs. 5, 6, and 10) down uponthe plate and guide it across the path of the needle over the button B,and the slot extension as is provided for the protrusion through it andthrough the work covering it of the knife which cuts the buttonholeafter the circumferential sewing has been performed about the linethrough which the cut must be made to produce the hole, all in a usualmanner. The described arrangement of the slots in the plate, however,produces in the oscillation of the needle between the ends of theneedle-opening cl, always at right angles to the feed of the work underguidance of the slots, a, stitch at right angles to the edge of thebuttonhole like that represented at o in Fig. 3, whereas it is my desirefor the purpose of more closely producing resemblance to a hand-madebuttonhole to provide a diagonal stitch according to the representationin Fig. 4. This I accomplish by providing in the plate the clampguide-slot g to extend from one end of the curved slot 9 at an acuteangle with relation to the needle-opening 02 to one side thereof and aclamp guideslot g toextend from the opposite end of the curved slot g atan acute .angle with relation to the needle-opening d to the oppositeside thereof, omitting entirely from the plate the slot indicated at h.

To operate a sewing-machine equipped with my improved devices, the workE is adjusted over the button B on the plate A and held by the usualfeeding-clamp, which is started in its course from the outer extremityof the slot 9. The needle D being properly threaded and the core f beingthreaded through the button-orifice e and laid in the groove 6 forguidance and also in the groove extension 6 while the machine is runningthe feeding of the work begins along the line of the groove g across theneedle, which in its up-and-down movements oscillates as usual in theopening 0Z lengthwise thereof to stitch across the cord which is laid inproper position on the work,

and to which it is fastened by the initial stitch or stitches of theneedle. By thus feeding the work along the line of the oblique groove 9it is necessarily moved at the line thereon which is covered by the cordf and across which the needle oscillates obliquely with relation to thepath of oscillation of the needle in the opening d or, in other words,obliquely across the said needle-opening, so that the looped stitchesalong one edge 2?, Fig. 4, of the buttonhole to be produced, which isthe edge first stitched, are of the illustrated bias nature across thecord. When the clamp in following the groove g enters the curved groove9 it is moved about the latter, as usual, to stitch the eye c' for thebuttonhole, whereby the stitches are looped across the cord about theeye, substantially as shown at t in Fig. 4, and when the feeding-clampleaves the slot 9 after the buttonhole-eye has been stitched it entersand is moved to the outer end of the slot 9 thereby guiding thecordcovered line on the work obliquely to the needle-opening cl in thebutton B, the same as in forming the stitched buttonhole edge if, andthe bias stitches are looped across the cord to form the stitched edge tin Fig. 4. Thereupon the clamp is removed from the groove g andintroduced into the groove 9, thereby bringing the cloth between thestitches t 25 into coincidence with the slot extension :20, and thecutter (not shown) is then actuated through the slot extension to outthe buttonhole, all in the usual manner.

It will be noted that the cord-orifice e and the groove 6, extendingfrom it in the buttonhead 0, are provided nearer to the inner end of theneedle-opening d than to the outer end thereof. This position of thecord orifice guides the cord f to lie just inside the plane of the lineof needle-strokes that cause the oscillating needle to penetrate thework in forming the outer edge of the line of oblique stitches, so thatin each downstroke of the needle through the needle-opening d at itsinner end its point just clears the outer edge of the cord, (thuswithout penetrating the lat ter;) but the wider portion of the needlebears against the edge of the cord, as will be seen by following out thedownstroke of the needle D on inspecting Fig. 5, and this position ofthe cord brings it directly under the loops of the stitches, therebycentralizing it and causing the stitches to stand out freely andsolidly. While the cord should initially lie not only in the groove 6 inthe button-head, but also in the groove extension 6 after the firstaction of the needle in fastening the cord to the Work, the feed alongthe lines of the grooves in the plate A of my improved construction willof course extend the cord f obliquely across the needle-opening din thedirection indicated by the dotted lines at y in Fig. 8, thereby takingit out of the groove extension 6 and deflecting it across the nose 6into the oblique position referred to, whereby it will coincide with theline across which the stitches 25 t t are to be formed bias.

The feeding-clamp hereinbefore referred to and the mechanism foractuating it are old and well known in the art, those employed by mebeing in common use on the Singer type of buttonhole-machine. Such aclamp is represented in Figs. 10 and 11. It carries a stud 76, adaptedto be raised by a thumb-lever k against the resistance of a spring andwhich passes through the slots in the plate A into the cam-groove Z inthe upper side of a peripherally-toothed cam-disk G, Figs. 10, 11, 12,and 13, having also a camgroove m on its under side. The initialposition of the clamp is that in which it is represerited in Fig. 10,with its stud 7c in the outer end of the plate-slot g and entering thecam-groove Z in the rotary disk Gr, Fig. 12, the clamp embracing thebutton B, about which it moves in the travel of the stud 76 through theslots g, 9 and 9 The first movement of the stud is along the slot 9',thence through the slot g wherein it turns to turn the clamp about thebutton B, and thence through the slot to produce the sewing operationfor the buttonhole, as hereinbefore described. hen the stud k in thecourse of the clamp reaches theouter end or other desired point in theslot it is raised out of the latter by depressing the thumb-lever in torelease the clamp, when the latter is adjusted by hand to introduce thestud into the cutting-slot g in the plate B. The clamp, with its feedingmechanism and their functions, are so old and well known in the art thatmore minute description of their constructions and operation areunnecessary.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is'- 1. Theattachment for a buttonhole-sewing machine, comprising thebutton-carrying plate provided with the curved clamp-guiding slot,

the guide-slot extending from one end of said curved slot and having acutter-slot extension, and clamp-guiding slots extending divergentlyfrom the opposite ends of said curved slot, substantially as and for thepurpose set forth.

2. The attachment for a buttonhole-sewing machine, comprising, incombination, the button having an elongated needle-opening in its headand provided in said head with a cordorifice adjacent to said needleopening and nearer to the inner than to the outer end thereof, and thebed-plate carrying centrally said button and provided with the curvedclampguiding slot, the guide-slot extending from one end of said curvedslot and having a cutterslot extension, and clamp-guiding slotsextending divergently from the opposite ends of said curved slot,substantially as and for the pur, pose set forth. 1

3. The attachment for a buttonhole-sewing machine, comprising, incombination, the button having an elongated needle-opening in its headand provided in said head with a cordorifice having a cord-grooveextending from it into said needle-opening nearer to the inner than tothe outer end thereof, and the bed-plate carrying centrally said buttonand provided with the curved clamp-guiding slot, the guideslot extendingfrom one end of said curved slot and having a cutter-slot extension, andclamp guiding slots extending divergently from the opposite ends of saidcurved slot,

substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4:. The attachment for a buttonhole-sewing machine, comprising, incombination, the button having an elongated needle-opening in its headand provided in said head with a cordorifice having a cord-grooveterminating at one side in a cord-deflecting nose, and extending fromsaid orifice into the needle-opening nearer to its inner end than to itsouter end, and the bed-plate carrying centrally said button and providedwith the curved clamp-guiding slot, the guide-slot extending from theend of said curved slot and having a cutterslot extension, andclamp-guiding slots extending divergently from the opposite ends of saidcurved slot, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

LOUIS EOKER.

In presence of ALBERT D. BAGCI, JOHN H. LEE.

